Mullane gets ready to Shine

Singer-songwriter releases third album featuring single now on Billboard

Singer/songwriter Jon Mullane, at the Sonic Temple studio in downtown Halifax, is about to release his third album Shine. RYAN TAPLIN

NOW IS THE TIME for Jon Mullane to Shine.

On Tuesday, the Halifax pop-rocker is releasing his third album under his own name — he previously recorded under the moniker Jonathan M — on maplemusic.com.

“The Source was about reinventing myself,” Mullane says of his 2007 release. “It was about drawing from the source of inspiration.”

Shift, released in 2010, was about a shift in energy and momentum.

“I’d had the song in the Olympics (Make You Move) and it was about getting back to my rock roots.

“Shine — it’s the time to shine now. I’ve got the other albums under my belt and I’m pleased with what’s happening with radio play. People are enjoying the songs.”

Mullane has been working on the new album with Creighton Doane for about a year. He and drummer Doane (Honeymoon Suite, Harem Scarem) co-wrote the 10 uptempo tunes that include the debut single My New American Girl, now at No. 32 on the U.S. Billboard/BDS adult contemporary chart.

The tall, lean performer is a self-described perfectionist when it comes to writing tunes.

“I’m never satisfied,” he says with a grin.

A lot of the songs on Shift are inspired by a phrase, by something he saw on TV or a conversation he had.

Take Born Beautiful.

“I saw something on Facebook, a phrase — and I’m paraphrasing — ‘I wish I was ugly so people would love me for who I am and not just for my looks.’

“We’re such a culture that is focused on appearances. It relates to bullying. You have to have faith and the strength to know you’re a beautiful person inside, have the strength to work through the stuff you are being criticized for on the outside.”

Mullane, who grew up in Halifax and graduated from St. Patrick’s High School, says he was bullied in junior high and grade school.

“That stays with you,” he says, adding that everyone has had their own negative experiences. He hopes society will eventually become more tolerant.

Mullane wrote the chorus for Way Up about five years ago and then rejigged it for Shine. It is “upbeat and very uplifting. It’s about a guy and a girl who knew each other and were boyfriend and girlfriend and met up again later in life.”

He says it will likely be the second single off the album.

Mullane says he’s always been interested in American culture, “the way they celebrate their music, art and sports.”

My New American Girl, which is a little bit about Canada versus the U.S., was featured in an episode of the hit soap The Young and The Restless in late October.

“I had talked with the music supervisor about The One That Got Away and he liked it but it didn’t get used. I sent in the single for My New American Girl and the producer said they’d like to use it in the episode.”

Mullane says he was told the song fit the character of Summer Newman.

It’s not the first time Mullane’s music has been heard on a TV show.

Make You Move, which Mullane describes as “a very simple song that was the right song at the right time,” was part of NBC’s promos for the 2008 Olympics. The song was later nominated for single of the year at the 2009 East Coast Music Awards.

“It still keeps getting radio play,” he says. “When I play live, it’s the song that goes over the best.”

The One That Got Away — there’s a remixed version on Shine — was used on an MTV reality show. And Sin City was heard on Bad Girls Club, on MTV and now on the Oxygen network.

“It was their theme song and used in promos and the show itself,” he says.

Mullane is excited to have signed a deal with Fieldhouse Music/BMG that he says will open up a lot of opportunities for film and TV placement.

In the meantime, he’s performing at the Moncton Coliseum on Feb. 23 for The Women on a Mission & The Guy Show and is taping an episode of The Candy Show in Halifax in April.